Open Water Snorkel Instructor Course Workshop
As with every snorkelling event, things start early. 9am to be precise which would normally be fine, but not on a Sunday morning! Everyone nearly arrived at Wraysbury Dive Centre on time, despite getting lost or having trouble getting out of bed!
We were all hustled into a room where we were briefed on what the day was going to be about. 
Everyone really seemed to wake up when they heard that part of the course involved actually constructing and teaching a session in their mini groups.
We were eventually split into our groups and were then told the subjects which were to be taught. These included: AV and towing, surface dives, compass work and exiting the water with an unconscious casualty. We were instructed to use a surface marker bouy (SMB) when teaching a lesson as it was an essential bit of kit, the rest was up to us. We all went through the individual lessons using a guide paper to construct our lesson plan. We each had input and gave advice on how to teach specific aspects of the subjects we were working on.
Planning of each lesson took place on the grass in the sun where each group started to panic about what they were going to teach, and the way in which they were to teach it to each other.
All of a sudden it was 1pm, and everyone was instructed to battle into their wetsuits and make sure their lesson plans were copied to a slate and arrange any special equipment needed.
In my particular group, our teacher went first doing what we all thought to be the worst lesson, compass navigation. As with every lesson we were instructed to take our pupils through a dry run, and mention the differences that they would face in comparison with pool work. For example the fact that your weight belt will sit on your hips, and how to inflate your life jacket and all those little things that will make life easier for everyone (we hope).
Next we ventured into the open water, which was extremely cold at only 8 degrees centigrade (brrhhh). We learnt all about the different types of entering and exiting the water and where abouts we should put our fins on etc. There was emphasis on working in buddy pairs, for example checking each other's releases and how to inflate life jackets, as there were many different variations of both buckles and inflation methods.
Each lesson commenced with a brief to the students about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. We then entered the water and taught the lesson. It became essential at this point to remember your surroundings, the dangers of the environment such as the current. Due to the fact that it was a nice day, the lake soon became full of divers so it was essential to watch where weight belts were being dropped etc. The lesson also had to be orientated around the availability of exits and entry points to and from the water because of the high number of people.
Despite the occasional shower and the initial coldness of the water the day was very informative. We had a lot of fun and learnt many new tricks, from wearing plastic gloves underneath our wetsuit gloves, to blowing up the sleeves of wetsuits to help put them on. All these handy tips will be passed on to students and other instructors in the club.
Overall, we all were taught valuable lessons. Remember who you are teaching, where you are teaching it and how you want to relay the lesson. At the same time remembering what it was like when you first put your weight belt on and struggled to stay afloat in the water until you remembered you had a lifejacket, like me!!.
We left the lake tired and exhausted. We had been given log book stickers to say that we had completed the course. We were now able to become open water instructors, once we had completed 8 hours of further in water teaching experience. We were given student packs telling us how to put our training into practice. Now all we have to do is the eight hours worth of planning and running open water snorkelling lessons to fully complete our open water instructors qualification.
By Zoe Midwinter - Open Water Snorkel Instructor Candidate
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Junior Snorkelling Club
